# auto retrieval of year from freedB
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 29, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023 "2010-10-29T00:28:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@susiwong](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/susiwong)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023/1 "2010-10-29T00:28:18Z")
Ok, here's my 2nd question.
Many of my old ripped CD folders lack the year, unfortunately.
Is there a way to auto-fill in the year in all files without changing the rest, by calling up an action or something ?
Thanks for any help,
susiwong
---
### Author:  [@pone](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pone)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023/2 "2010-10-29T11:19:20Z")
you can take one of the many existing web sources scripts in the forum and edit it to write only the year.
open it with a text editor.
1. EASY WAY:
write at the end of the script:
set "artist"
set "album"
set "tracks"
...
for every tag you want to keep untouched. important: use "tracks" instead of "track" & "title".
1. MORE COMPLICATED WAY (but maybe the script runs faster)
delete everything in the script which is does not belong to the year tag.
keep only:
the index part of the script which finds the album in the web.
the necessary parts to find & write the year.
---
### Author:  [@susiwong](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/susiwong)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023/3 "2010-10-29T12:57:03Z")
Thanks, sounds promising.
I've been using web sources before, without getting the modular concept.
Unfortunately I'm not experienced enough to correctly edit the src myself.
Care to help ?
> [@](#):
>
> #
>
> # Mp3tag (v2.36+) parsing for [freedb2.org](http://freedb2.org)
>
> #
>
> # Search by ALBUM
>
> # This file should be in your sources directory
>
> # On Windows XP it's
>
> # C:\Documents and Settings\*username\*\Application Data\Mp3tag\data\sources
>
> #
>
> # Modifications:
>
> # 2006-07-08: started
>
> #
>
> #
>
> [Name]=freedb2
> [BasedOn]=[freedb2.org](http://freedb2.org)
> [IndexUrl]=[http://freedb2.org/~cddb/cddb.cgi?cmd=cddb+album+/+%s&hello=User+Mp3tag.de+Mp3tag&proto=6](http://freedb2.org/~cddb/cddb.cgi?cmd=cddb+album+/+%25s&hello=User+Mp3tag.de+Mp3tag&proto=6)
> [AlbumUrl]=[http://freedb2.org/freedb/](http://freedb2.org/freedb/)
> [WordSeperator]=+
> [IndexFormat]=%Category%|%\_url%|%Artist%|%Album%
> [SearchBy]=%album%
> [Encoding]=utf-8
>
> [ParserScriptIndex]=...
>
> #
>
> # I N D E X
>
> #
>
> # Uncomment the following line if you want to write some debug output
>
> #debug "on" "c:\\debug\_freedb2\_A.html" "10"
>
> moveline 1
> do
> findline " "
> # Category
> sayuntil " "
> say "|"
> findline " "
>
> ```
> # Category + DiscID
> sayuntil " "
> say "/"
> movechar 1
> sayuntil " "
> say "|"
> movechar 1
>
> # Artist
> sayuntil " / "
> say "|"
> movechar 3
>
> # Album
> sayrest
>
> saynewline
> moveline 1 1
> findinline " " 1 1
> movechar -1
>
> ```
>
> while " " 300
>
> [ParserScriptAlbum]=...
>
> #
>
> # A L B U M
>
> #
>
> # Uncomment the following line if you want to write some debug output
>
> #debug "on" "c:\\debug\_freedb2\_B.html" "10"
>
> # Artist
>
> findline "DTITLE="
> findinline "DTITLE="
> outputto "Artist"
> sayuntil " / "
>
> # Album
>
> movechar 3
> outputto "Album"
> sayrest
>
> # Year
>
> findline "DYEAR="
> findinline "DYEAR="
> outputto "Year"
> sayrest
>
> # Genre
>
> findline "DGENRE="
> findinline "DGENRE="
> outputto "Genre"
> sayrest
>
> # Tracks
>
> outputto "tracks"
> findline "TTITLE"
> do
> findinline "="
> sayrest
> say "|"
> moveline 1
> while "TTITLE"
from the freedb2\_b.src found here in the forum
Cheers,
susiwong
---
### Author:  [@pone](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pone)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023/4 "2010-10-29T13:07:48Z")
> [@susiwong](#):
>
> Thanks, sounds promising.
> I've been using web sources before, without getting the modular concept.
>
> Unfortunately I'm not experienced enough to correctly edit the src myself.
> Care to help ?
>
> from the freedb2\_b.src found here in the forum
>
> Cheers,
> susiwong
keep everything above "[ParserScriptAlbum]=..."
replace everything from "[ParserScriptAlbum]=..." to the end with the following code:
```
[ParserScriptAlbum]=...
# ###################################################################
# A L B U M
# ###################################################################
# Uncomment the following line if you want to write some debug output
#debug "on" "c:\\\\debug_freedb2_B.html" "10"
# Year
findline "DYEAR="
findinline "DYEAR="
outputto "Year"
sayrest
```
save the .src file under a new name, e.g. freedb2\_b\_YEAR\_ONLY.src to keep the old file if needed.
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023/5 "2010-10-29T13:09:57Z")
---
### Author:  [@susiwong](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/susiwong)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023/6 "2010-10-29T14:00:53Z")
Thanks again, the script works !
In case anybody's interested :
> [@](#):
>
> #
>
> # Mp3tag (v2.36+) parsing for [freedb2.org](http://freedb2.org)
>
> #
>
> # Search by ALBUM
>
> # This file should be in your sources directory
>
> # On Windows XP it's
>
> # C:\Documents and Settings\*username\*\Application Data\Mp3tag\data\sources
>
> #
>
> # Modifications:
>
> # 2006-07-08: started
>
> #
>
> #
>
> [Name]=freedb2
> [BasedOn]=[freedb2.org](http://freedb2.org)
> [IndexUrl]=[http://freedb2.org/~cddb/cddb.cgi?cmd=cddb+album+/+%s&hello=User+Mp3tag.de+Mp3tag&proto=6](http://freedb2.org/~cddb/cddb.cgi?cmd=cddb+album+/+%25s&hello=User+Mp3tag.de+Mp3tag&proto=6)
> [AlbumUrl]=[http://freedb2.org/freedb/](http://freedb2.org/freedb/)
> [WordSeperator]=+
> [IndexFormat]=%Category%|%\_url%|%Artist%|%Album%
> [SearchBy]=%album%
> [Encoding]=utf-8
>
> [ParserScriptIndex]=...
>
> #
>
> # I N D E X
>
> #
>
> # Uncomment the following line if you want to write some debug output
>
> #debug "on" "c:\\debug\_freedb2\_A.html" "10"
>
> moveline 1
> do
> findline " "
> # Category
> sayuntil " "
> say "|"
> findline " "
>
> ```
> # Category + DiscID
> sayuntil " "
> say "/"
> movechar 1
> sayuntil " "
> say "|"
> movechar 1
>
> # Artist
> sayuntil " / "
> say "|"
> movechar 3
>
> # Album
> sayrest
>
> saynewline
> moveline 1 1
> findinline " " 1 1
> movechar -1
>
> ```
>
> while " " 300
>
> [ParserScriptAlbum]=...
>
> #
>
> # A L B U M
>
> #
>
> # Uncomment the following line if you want to write some debug output
>
> #debug "on" "c:\\debug\_freedb2\_B.html" "10"
>
> # Year
>
> findline "DYEAR="
> findinline "DYEAR="
> outputto "Year"
> sayrest
Really appreciate your help,
cheers,
susiwong
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/auto-retrieval-of-year-from-freedb/11023/7 "2026-02-09T12:22:39Z")